On the front lines

Dunns serve the exploited and dying in Addis Ababa

Amanda Dunn drove through the streets of Kore, Ethiopia, in the pouring rain. She was looking for her friend Hannah, who was out selling bread she had made as part of her job skills training program in the kitchen at Hareg House that morning. Amanda expected to see her huddled and miserable under cover, but there she was, boldly walking through the rain, determined to find buyers for her products.

Beza was living alone in abject poverty in the town dump in Kore. Dying from both cancer and AIDS, she was so lonely that she didn’t even mind when some young boys came by to taunt and torment her every day, because that was her only human interaction. Then the hospice team from Strong Hearts found her and were able to give her the compassion and medical care she desperately needed.

Shared passion

Team members Nick and Amanda Dunn’s shared passion to care for the poor, marginalized and exploited people of the world has put them on the front lines of service to the urban poor in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They visited the CMF home office in Indianapolis recently, and shared some stories from their remarkable ministries.

Hospice care

Nick, a nurse, works with the hospice program run by CMF partner Strong Hearts, managing a team of three nurses and a Public Health Officer (nurse practitioner) to provide home care to the dying poor in a 20-miles radius of Kore, a sub-city of Addis Ababa. A chaplain/evangelist from Serving Hearts Ministries, a division of Strong Hearts, is also a part of the team.

“When the program first began we found our patients through word of mouth,” said Nick. “Now, after a couple years of educating the hospitals on how we can help, we receive referrals from three hospitals and three clinics, which is a huge victory for us. We carry a continuous caseload of about 25 patients.”

HOME VISIT — The Strong Hearts hospice team enters the home of a patient in Kore, Ethiopia.

HOSPICE PATIENT —Mekdes suffers from a condition that is very shaming in her culture.

Rescuing women

Amanda developed an interest in human trafficking issues in college, which was intensified by an internship in Thailand. She began working with the Ethiopian agency Ellilta Women at Risk, which helps women rescued from trafficking, prostitution and poverty in Kore, giving them a year of training in life and job skills, plus daily Bible studies.

She raised funds over the past couple of years to open Hareg House, another Ellilta training facility in a different section of the city, and enrolled her first group of eight clients this year.

“This was our huge victory,” Amanda said. “We got the new house open and well-staffed and, after their training, were able to find jobs for some of these women, who previously had no hope for better lives.”

Amanda Dunn, left, poses with some of the members of the Hareg House staff.

You can help! There are only two hospice programs in the entire country of Ethiopia, and the Strong Hearts program managed by Nick Dunn is one of them! You can help to ease the suffering of the sick and dying poor of Ethiopia here.

Life after college

Students’ faith journeys continue after leaving El Pozo

New college graduates who have come to the end of their time at the El Pozo campus ministry in Puebla, Mexico, don’t have to make the big leap into adulthood all alone; they now have help from two very familiar faces.

This semester Kami and Jordan Reed, El Pozo campus ministers, are co-hosting a small group in their home for students who are graduating in December or have recently graduated.

“We are calling it ‘Vida Post-Universidad,’ or ‘Life After College,’ ” said Kami, “and we’re talking through the ins and outs of adulthood and what it means to transition from life on a college campus to the professional world.”

At the first group meeting they made a long list of topics to discuss, including finances, dating and marriage, getting connected to a church and maintaining a relationship with God.

“While we have spent the last few years working hard to connect these students to the El Pozo community, we hope to complete the task by helping them move gracefully into their next season of life,” said Kami.

“We’re so excited to lead this group and know that these students, while coming to the end of their college careers, and therefore their time at El Pozo, are only beginning their lives and faith stories,” she added. “We can’t wait to see what God has in store for each of them as they go out from here!”